


After the Tide Mice

by blue_lazurite



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Romance, i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2020-11-23 09:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20889545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_lazurite/pseuds/blue_lazurite
Summary: Johanna and the librarian have been friends for a while, and neither of them would ever want to ruin that. But after the Tide Mouse incident leaves some questions unanswered, the truth comes out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I get carried away thinking about the implications of one particular episode lol. This is one of my first attempts writing so I'm sorry if the language is super clunky. Also - smart_heart came up with the name Maven for the librarian so that's the name I'm going with for my fics. I hc the librarian as about 25 & Johanna 30-ish btw

The blast was so loud that Maven could have heard it from a mile away. The whole flat shook, knocking her off her feet, and as she turned to the window a flash of blinding blue light seared into the room.

“What?” she gasped. She instinctively ducked for cover, the floor trembling beneath her feet.

From across the room there was a resounding crash, followed by a cry, as though a frightened animal had run – or flown – full-force into something.

“Freyja!” Maven called out, and a streak of black fur shot through the light into her arms. Maven hugged the owlcat tightly and pressed herself flat against the wall, her heart pounding, and closed her eyes.

The light vanished almost as soon as it had appeared, taking the deafening noise with it. Maven opened her eyes and rushed to the window, Freyja still gripped tightly in her arms. As she looked out, she just caught sight of some clouds vanishing in a soft blue haze, and then it was gone. She peered into the darkness, searching for something, anything to explain what had happened, but the night was as still as it had been before, illuminated only by a clear moon. Maven stared at it as she caught her breath, thoughts beginning to form in her mind.

She had recognised the light immediately, but she had never seen anything like it on such a scale, at least not within the city walls. And the tremors – maybe the other residents of Trolberg would pass it off as a small earthquake, but Maven knew that wasn’t the case. Only magic could cause an effect like that. And it wasn’t just that – she could feel that something was wrong. Even now, as the panic subsided, her nerves were on fire. She had never been that close to a magical disturbance on such a scale. She caught sight of her reflection in the window, of her hair, dyed black at the roots. Of course it would hurt her. No one else in Trolberg went anywhere near magic, let alone was born with it. But then, who could have used it just now?

Maven’s thoughts turned to the girl she had seen at the library only a few weeks ago, the one who had wandered into the spells room. Johanna’s kid. Maven smiled at the memory, recalling how she’d met the girl’s mother the next day, looking for her daughter. She had come into the library, needing to find some book or another, almost every day since.

Maven reluctantly turned her thoughts back toward the flash of light. So Hilda had used a spell, that much was clear. But there was no way she could have done it alone, and besides, an enchantment on that scale could never be for something small. Something serious must have been at work. Maven froze as she was struck by an unpleasant thought. She had seen Hilda at the library again the day before, with one of her friends. She had looked scared. So if Hilda’s friends hadn’t been affected, then who –

“Jo!” Maven gasped.

***

Johanna was sat at her desk, trying to concentrate. Her hand, clutching a pen a little tighter than usual, hovered over the table as she stared at the page, her thoughts elsewhere. She looked away for a moment to take in the empty flat; nothing was moving save for a path of moonlight cutting in between the curtains. Hilda was in bed – hopefully, for once, actually asleep – and her friends had been taken home. Johanna hadn’t had an easy time trying to explain to their parents why they’d been with her and Hilda in the first place, but luckily for her, David and Frida had worked out their own ways to explain away Hilda’s adventures. And anything would be more believable than saying they’d been haring over to the beach to try and reverse a soul-stealing spell. Johanna flinched at the memory. Even she still couldn’t wrap her head around it all - imagine if something had gone wrong, and they couldn’t stop the spell…

Johanna threw down the pen in frustration and nervously ran a hand through her hair. There was no way she would be able to concentrate on work tonight. And the next meeting was in a few days…

The doorbell rang, jolting her out of her thoughts. Hesitantly she approached the door and glanced through the peephole. A blur of purple and black came into view. As she recognised the figure, Johanna’s thoughts about the assignment vanished and she pulled open the door.

“Maven!” she said, making an effort to seem cheerful – not that she wasn’t happy to see the librarian, but the timing could hardly have been worse.

The librarian almost seemed surprised to see her. There was a pause as she looked Johanna up and down, her eyes sharp with worry. “Oh – Johanna!” she said. “I’m sorry it’s so late, I just – I got a bit worried, earlier – and I came to see if everything was alright – ”

“What do you – ” Johanna began, before remembering Hilda was asleep two rooms away. She lowered her voice and stepped back so Maven could come in. “What do you mean?” she asked, in hushed tones.

Maven glanced towards Hilda’s door. So maybe Hilda had nothing to do with it after all.

“It’s just that, well – didn’t you notice the er, earthquake, earlier?” Maven cringed a little as she spoke. Yes, an earthquake, that was a perfectly reasonable excuse to call on someone in the middle of the night.

“Oh – right.”

Maven shifted uncomfortably, regretting her rash actions more by the minute. It was fine. Johanna was safe. She’d been worrying over nothing.

“I suppose I just got..carried away in the panic,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Johanna reassured her, painfully aware that something _had_ happened – or, almost. “Besides,” she smiled, “it’s nice that you cared enough to come by.”

Maven returned the smile awkwardly. She felt like an idiot, pretending that she’d rushed over because of a few tremors. But Johanna didn’t seem to be aware of what had happened earlier, and Maven didn’t want to worry her; she was still trying to keep her involvement with magic relatively low-key – not to mention that whatever Hilda seemed to be up to, it was none of her business.

But Maven would have been scared regardless, she just didn’t like to admit it. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was worrying more about Johanna than a friend had any right to. “I’m sorry,” she said again. The longer she thought about it, the more stupid it seemed, showing up in the middle of the night to check on someone she had only recently met.

Johanna was busy thinking about how to explain the events of that evening, but could see no way to even begin. And she couldn’t pretend that she even understood what had happened – Hilda hadn’t been so talkative when they’d reversed the enchantment or after they had arrived home. That alone made Johanna worry more. Maybe for once Hilda had been as scared as she was.

Maybe something in Johanna’s expression gave away her thoughts, because Maven approached her with a look of concern and put her hand on her arm. “Is everything alright?” she asked. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

When Johanna looked like she might object, the librarian added, “If you’re not busy, that is – and I figured you wouldn’t want us to wake Hilda.”

“Oh – good thinking.” Johanna looked over her shoulder at her drawing board, deliberating, but it was mostly for show. She knew she couldn’t work now, and regardless, it looked like things could only get better from here.

A moment later, they stepped outside the flat and into the cold night air. Johanna had found Twig before they left and gently woken him – she felt a little bad, but she needed someone to keep an eye on Hilda while she was out, and Twig never objected. Just as the door shut behind her, Johanna realised that her coat, her jumper, everything still had sand on it from the events of the last few hours. As she turned around she could read in Maven’s face that she’d noticed too. Johanna held in a sigh. _Not_ a great start.

“Jo”, Maven said. She paused for a moment, before curiosity got the better of her. “Why are you covered in sand?”

Johanna looked down at herself and flinched, as if she’d just recalled it was there. She pulled her coat around herself sheepishly and gave a weak smile. “Would you believe me if I said I’d gone for a walk on the beach?”

“And…what, been caught in a sandstorm?” Maven asked sceptically. For a moment Johanna looked like she was going to say yes.

“Definitely not”, Maven said briskly, taking the other woman’s arm. “But let’s get going – and you can tell me what really happened.”

Johanna hesitated. “It’s…a long story”.

“You forget that you’re talking to someone who basically reads stories for a living.” Maven tugged on Johanna’s arm playfully, and they set off. “And anyway,” she added, “I’ve got all night.”


	2. Chapter 2

It was some time later when Johanna had finished retelling the events of the evening and the month that lead up to it, so much that the two had almost left the city behind completely. Maven had been listening so intently that she had barely noticed where they were going. Now as she looked up, trying to process it all, she flinched a little as she saw a tide pool come into view. This was where she had seen the flash of light. She looked at Johanna, who seemed as surprised to see it as she was. There was a moment of silence as they both took in the view, before Johanna spoke.

“So, I didn’t…I didn’t really deserve that job, did I?”

Maven blinked, taken aback that after everything that had happened, this was Johanna's main concern.

"Not that - not that that's the thing I'm most worried about", Johanna added hastily, seeing the look on her face. "It's just, I really thought that things were looking up for me, that I was getting somewhere. And it was just that spell."

“Oh, of course you deserved it!” Maven interjected fiercely. From what Johanna had told her, she only had the vaguest sense of what the spell could've been, but she was determined to make sense of it. At least it was less of a minefield than explaining how Hilda had got hold of the spell in the first place, but Maven was almost as much in the dark as Johanna – from what she had told her, she gathered that Hilda wasn’t up to saying much about what had happened. Maven was left to guess at exactly which spell had been used and fill in the blanks.

“If I’m thinking of the right enchantment – not that I’ve ever done something like this – ” she added hastily, “then the spell doesn’t give you any extra talent you don’t have – just some luck with using it. It’s just little things like - “, Maven gestured vaguely, “ – like being on time for meetings, or, someone noticing you who might not normally have. _Success in a chosen __endeavour_.” Johanna gave a nervous smile at her words and Maven felt a surge of fierce pride. Johanna had nearly lost her soul to this god-forsaken spell and the witch was damned if she’d let her write-off all of her well-earned success after that.

“Trust me,” Maven said seriously, when Johanna still didn’t look convinced. “You deserve every bit of success that comes your way – I know how hard you’ve worked for this.”

Johanna glanced away but Maven could see her smiling a little. “Thank you – ” Johanna said, and Maven noticed that the other woman’s voice had changed, become softer, “I mean – for coming by tonight, for explaining everything – I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Maven looked away, feeling a rush of heat to her face. She still didn’t know what page her and Jo were on, but there was no denying that she’d made her happy. “Well, you know – ” Maven said, trying not to sound too pleased with herself, “working in a library has some advantages.”

“No, really!” Johanna insisted, and Maven was pleased to see that she was a little more cheerful, “When I think how lucky it is that – ” she stopped dead, as if struck by a worrying thought. “Oh.”

Maven turned around and gave her companion a quizzical look, but Johanna had averted her gaze. The witch felt a sharp pang of worry as she wondered if it was something she’d said. “Jo,” she said softly, “is something wrong?”

“I was just thinking about the spell”, Johanna replied. “About, how you – how you would know, if something you’d done – if something _wonderful_ happened to you, around the same time – if it was down to that enchantment, or you…”

Maven’s immediate thought was, _why would it matter?_ but she tried to remain understanding – she knew that the ins and outs of enchantments could seem very scary to people who were new to magic. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“It’s just that…well,” Johanna hesitated and Maven got the impression that she was choosing her words very carefully. “Well, I _know_ that’s how I got the job, because Hilda used that enchantment on me a month ago, and I got my first meeting the next day. It’s just that – that was the same day…” Johanna’s face flushed pink “…I met you.”

“I don’t underst-“ Maven began, and then it hit her. For a moment she couldn’t think of anything, what to say or how to feel. Johanna glanced at her nervously and seemed to suddenly realise what she had said.

“I’m sorry - ”, she said hastily, her eyes widening in panic, “ – I shouldn’t have – that was so abrupt of me, I shouldn’t have made you feel uncomfortable I don’t even know if you’re – “

Johanna’s words were barely audible to Maven as she replayed the moment in her head, and she put a hand to her mouth in an effort to suppress her smile as she went over it again_. If something _wonderful_ happened to you._ She couldn’t possibly misinterpret that – Johanna said she liked her. She _liked_ her. Maven’s insides were in knots and her heart was beating so furiously she was sure the other woman could hear it. Before she could give it a second thought, Maven made an effort to suppress her euphoria and turned to Johanna – who was still speaking worriedly – feeling her heart in her throat.

She reached over and took Johanna's hand. Johanna looked back to her and curls of chestnut hair, glowing golden in the light from a streetlamp, framed a look of slight surprise. It was all Maven took in as, without further thought, she leaned in and kissed her. The world faded away and she felt both her and Johanna give a start at the suddenness – or maybe it was the warmth, after being out for so long in the cold. A wave of relief washed over Maven as Johanna kissed her back with the same enthusiasm and she crossed her arms around Johanna’s shoulders. _Finally_.

After a few seconds Maven pulled a way a little, reluctantly, her heart beating faster than ever. She could see some worry in Johanna’s eyes – after her ordeal, that was fair. Suddenly the right words came to her and she spoke them softly into existence.

“Don't worry. Magic has nothing to do with this”, she said, looking into Johanna’s eyes and holding her gaze. It felt as though she could keep staring forever. “I use magic every day, and if it were to change something about me – about _us_ – I would know.” She took Johanna’s hand, her hesitations gone. “This is real”.

There was just enough time to take in the relief on Johanna’s face – relief from the reassurance or from Maven visibly sharing her feelings, she wasn’t sure – before Maven leaned in again. As they kissed again the golden glow of the streetlamp, the chill night air, everything disappeared except for them. She could feel Johanna’s arms around her waist and the cold melted away; she shivered a little as glorious warmth spread through her. She could stay out forever like this. She smiled into the kiss and Johanna copied, all nervousness and hesitation gone.

Eventually, too soon, the two broke apart again, Johanna mentioning something about getting home to check on Hilda; Maven barely registered the exchange, her thoughts blissfully occupied. She watched Johanna’s figure retreat into the distance before setting off home herself. As she came closer to the tide pools Maven stood still, taking in the sight for a moment, before setting off once again. She was embarrassed to think it, but even she was a little surprised that whatever spell Hilda had been messing around with, it had played no part whatsoever, in something that had felt so magical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! You can probably tell but I haven't had much practice writing, especially romantic stuff, but I wanted to give it a try. If you took the time to read this then thank you!


End file.
